Bike to bike intercoms?

[chrisktm]

I'd like to buy a bike to bike intercom but dont have a clue. What Im looking for is.... Easy to swap from one rider to another. A good price. Half decent range.

Any one got any suggestions or past experience to share?

[TimeOut]

Hi

My brother son and I have the Scala rider Q2 $150Au each
They work great, when using the phone the other end can't even tell you're on a bike. The FM radio is good although the range isn't great.
The intercom is brilliant a good 500m range 4 hr talk time, ours won't shut off automatically (like they're supposed to) when not in use as there is a bit of bike noise when you aren't talking.
Easy to fit and pair.
If there is 3 sets (like us) the 2nd & 3rd can't talk to each other, but 1&3 and 1&2 can.

Some intercoms don't give you the range.

[Tank]

search blueant on this site - they seem to do the job well and are not that expensive.

edit - here is the link: http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...hlight=blueant review by JohnnyFlash.

[TimeOut]

Blueant is good for rider to pillion but I think they only have a 100 m range.

[Hitcher]

Any one got any suggestions or past experience to share?

Please put this site's most excellent "search" facility to use. This topic has been done to death on several occasions, and the outcomes of that are still current.

[sinned]

Please put this site's most excellent "search" facility to use. This topic has been done to death on several occasions, and the outcomes of that are still current.

Hitcher is right - of course.

Here is a different approach to get range bike to bike. Buy any blue tooth headset - (Blue Ant is excellent) - and connect to your cellphone. On Vodafone there is the Best Mates option for around $4.00 per month which gives unlimited calling to a selected vodafone mobile. With a Nokia phone and Blue Ant you have voice calling so it is easy to call the other bike while riding. This is better than having duplex bike to bike with a continuous open microphone and flat headset batteries before the days ride is over.

There are many ways of achieving communications - waving also works.

[Qkchk:Me]

Blueant is good for rider to pillion but I think they only have a 100 m range.

I use them for onroad training - bike to bike. I love 'em.

When I ride with communications (either training or for personal use) I tend to ride within the stated 150M distance. It hooks up really easy with my Nokia and my Garmin Zumo. Just a press of the button and I can chat to another paired unit or go back to my phone/mp3 player in my Zumo.

[chrisktm]

I use them for onroad training - bike to bike. I love 'em.

When I ride with communications (either training or for personal use) I tend to ride within the stated 150M distance. It hooks up really easy with my Nokia and my Garmin Zumo. Just a press of the button and I can chat to another paired unit or go back to my phone/mp3 player in my Zumo.

Perfect, thats exactly what I want to use it for, mainly for off road and adventure training. Cheers for the advice.

[Qkchk:Me]

Perfect, thats exactly what I want to use it for, mainly for off road and adventure training. Cheers for the advice.

I used it on the CCA (Capital Coast Adventure Ride) back in April, they take the ruff 'n tumble offroad as well as onroad.

[Grub]

Blueant is good for rider to pillion but I think they only have a 100 m range.

That's the same range that Nasty and i have with the Nolan N-Com bluetooth system in our N102 helmets (the N103 is out now). We don't find 100m a problem at all. We can get out to 150m if the line of sight is clear. Funnily, it gets better even than that if you're on a big long sweeper. sometimes they cut out but we just hold down the button and reconnect.

Bonus is that we can use our bluetooth phones and voice activated dialing to make and receive calls as well as adding MP3 and radar feeds to the mix. We've done a lot of touring and it's the best thing we ever bought for our bikes. The system fits fully insdie the helmet. No wires, no boxes, no worries.

[no-coast-punk]

Everyone here in The States uses the chatterbox system.

http://www.fox-com.com.au/

I love mine. I have my mobile phone and radar detector attached. Listen to music/GPS stuff through the phone and if the radar detector cries about something, the phone gets muted.

Battery life is fantastic. Way more than a full of day of riding with continuous usage.

[Hitcher]

Stereo speakers sounds like a good idea, but look at the size of that Chatterbox unit. Strewth. And it's got way too many functions and fiddly bits.

In my experience with a couple of bike-to-bike systems, they stand or fall on the quality of their connectors, not their electronics. The Pinfold systems suck big time on that score, and we've now had two Blueants go the same way. One of our riding buddies on our USA tour had invested in the hugely expensive Baehr system, but towards the end of the tour their connectors were starting to fade, particularly in the wet.

Our Blueants are still on their respective helmets in a crate containing an FJR1300 somewhere between here and Los Angeles. I plan to make a warranty claim on Mrs H's unit once it returns. The NZ Blueant distributors were brilliant last time we had a fail.

[CookMySock]

bump!

I see Mike Pinfold has yesterday updated his website with literally a a bewildering array of cool Bluetooth toys.

http://www.amalgamate2000.com/sales/...unications.htm
http://www.amalgamate2000.com/sales/...experiment.htm

I'm tempted to buy something, but there is so much information on his site that I have no idea what I just read! Boffin overload!

Steve

[vfxdog]

The Scala Rider Q2 is excellent. Works as it says on the box. I did manage to drown one after 4-5 days of solid rain but it was replaced under warranty with no quibble. Biggest problem is when the missus gets hold of one (whether she's on the back or on another bike).....yak yak yak....

[Hitcher]

It's good to see somebody thinking seriously about this. There are two major issues with bike-to-bike Bluetooth: range and battery life.

Range can be "solved" by bringing a walkie talkie into play. Battery life (for the headset) is another matter entirely, as the beauty of a Bluetooth enabled headset is the lack of cables and other encumberances that may require to be plugged and unplugged every time one wishes to depart from one's motorcycle.